Ambiente Friendly (Ire) (Gleneagles {Ire}) has been confirmed as an intended runner in next month's G1 Juddmonte International at York by owner Tim Gredley, who also revealed plans for the Derby runner-up to stay in training as a four-year-old.
Trained by James Fanshawe, Ambiente Friendly has underlined his status as one of the leading three-year-old colts in training since his impressive victory in the Listed Lingfield Derby Trial Stakes in May, first faring best of the rest behind City Of Troy (Justify) at Epsom and then running another solid race when finishing third in the Irish equivalent at the Curragh.
His connections now have their sights set on a rematch with City Of Troy and a drop back to a mile and a quarter for the feature contest on the opening day of York's Ebor Festival, which takes place on Wednesday, August 21.
“Ambiente Friendly is in good order and the plan is to go for the Juddmonte,” said Gredley, who owns the colt with his father, Bill. “He came out of the Irish Derby really well, but he had two hard races in the space of a month and Mr Fanshawe was keen to try a mile and a quarter around a left-handed bend, so the Juddmonte was the obvious race.
“It's probably more exciting for others than us, because we would probably rather he [City Of Troy] wasn't there. We can't control who is in the race, but I suppose the one thing we do have in our favour is we are not really ground dependent, unless it came up soft. We wouldn't be too worried either way.
“We don't know who is going to turn up on the day, but watching Sandown [when City Of Troy won the Coral-Eclipse] was interesting and it will be interesting to see them have a match over a mile and a quarter.”
The Gredley family are no strangers to top-level success, having seen their familiar yellow and black silks carried by star names such as Environment Friend (GB), User Friendly (GB) and Big Orange (GB), but their time in the sport has also shown them how difficult it is to acquire a horse of Ambiente Friendly's calibre.
“Sometimes you just have to remember how hard it is to get a horse like this and enjoy it,” Gredley said of the journey so far, before confirming that it's the intention for Ambiente Friendly to race on as a four-year-old.
“Everybody has an opinion and that is why we love racing, but at the end of the day we just have to make sure we look after him. We are trying to campaign him as sparingly as possible because ultimately we want to keep him in training next year. James has always maintained this horse is not yet fully developed, so as long as he stays fit and healthy we can have another campaign with him next year, which is even more exciting.
“It's been really exciting so far and like any horse they only have a certain amount of racing in them. We want to make sure he has a lengthy career and we're just really enjoying the ride.”
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